Paul Lake – half of Psychedelic Rock cult heroes The Chemistry Set, a band that have been regular visitors to the Fruits de Mer label over the years, releasing a series of rather brilliant albums and singles, releases his first solo single, a double ‘A’ side, featuring Paul‘s take on two classic songs – Traffic‘s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and The Stones‘
“Child Of The Moon.”
Stream an excerpt through the YouTube player below
This is going to be an extremely limited 7â lathe-cut, itâs probably going to be a bit âsought-after.â
What led Paul to release a solo single? I asked himâŚ
âFor a while Iâd fancied going solo to record a couple of cover versions of songs that mean a lot to me personally, from back in my formative teenage years when I played and sang in bands before the creation of The Chemistry Set. Although Iâd been playing the guitar since the age of 7, it wasnât until I attended sixth-form college in the mid â80s, that I began to seriously concentrate on playing lead guitar that soon became obsessional as I strove to develop and improve my ability as quickly as I could.
With the aid of a Sony Walkman I listened over and over to cassettes copied from my vinyl, laboriously trying to work out solos from, among others, Hendrix, Cream, The Yardbirds, early ZeppelinâŚfixating exclusively on the period 1966 to 1969âŚthe greatest years music ever presented to the worldâŚin my humble opinion.
During this time I played and sang in a couple of bands with highly committed, young, like-minded musicians performing gigs in London and Kent at colleges, village halls, and eventually at venues like the Clarendon Hotel in Hammersmith.
(Note: Somewhere there is an album floating around of a Garage/Psych/Punk band I played lead guitar with for a short time when I was 17 that was produced by Mike Spenser of The Cannibals. Iâd love to hear this for old timeâs sake).
One of the songs that I performed regularly back then was Trafficâs âDear Mr Fantasyâ with its overlong guitar solos that left plenty of room for experimentation (aka self-indulgence). Traffic produced some great songs and Iâve long admired the variety of instruments they used,
particularly Chris Woodâs often understated contributions on flute and saxophone. Therefore this was
one song I had to record as it conjures extremely sentimental memories for me of playing in those
youthful bands with very talented guys, some of whom, sadly, are no longer with us today.
The other song I recorded âChild Of The Moonâ, originates from a time in my early teens when I went through a phase of collecting original Rolling Stones singles and albums with money gleaned from doing milk deliveries and paper rounds âŚ.and I discovered this gem on the B side of âJumping Jack Flashâ.
I always thought it quite a curious song. While âFlashâ sounds fresh, full of strutting confidence and has the air of âback to businessâ after a year of drug busts and court cases, in contrast âMoonâ somehow seems like a âSatanic Majestiesâ hangover, carrying the weary, persecuted transition from their flirtation with summer of love psychedelia to their back-to-basics 1968 acoustic classic âBeggars Banquet.â Nevertheless with its melody redolent of the The Beatles âRainâ and Brian Jonesâ grinding Hammond sounds I was totally intrigued by the song and always fancied a crack at it.
My personal approach to recording cover versions is to accentuate the character of the original song but not try to replicate it, which I think is pointless. Therefore on âFantasyâ I opted for a more folky approach at the start with open down-tuned 12 string acoustic and sitar licks but I also wanted a woodwind sound to pay homage to Chris Wood, so not
knowing any flutists, I recruited my wife, Helen, who dug her old school recorder out of the loft to make her long-overdue recording debut. She played it so well that she even got to play the first solo!
The song then builds to get heavier as it moves along before finally reverting back to the way it started.
On âMoonâ I played the sitar and Hammond organ as a nod to the original but wanted to perform the song with more energy, perhaps a bit âRevolver-esqueâ and threw in some different solos that were not in the Stones version.
As well as Helen adding the recorder on âFantasyâ I am also extremely grateful to Tom Savage who, not only engineered and produced these recordings, but also happens to be a fantastic drummer – so he is the powerhouse behind the kit on both of these songs that have become the single. Tom, who has a recording studio in a village close to where I live in Lincolnshire, has engineered several Chemistry Set recordings where, for convenience, I have previously recorded vocal and instrumental tracks to then have them transferred to London to be added to and mixed later. So it was refreshing to work with him from the the start through to completion of this material the first time.
As far as future recordings are concerned, I donât have any ambition right now to continue releasing solo records. I feel that I have got this off of my chest so to speak. Dave and I have been working on writing new material for forthcoming Chemistry Set releases with a new concoction of formulae to freshen up our sound. The results from the lab will be released in due courseâŚ.â
Pre-Order here: https://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/fantasy.html
Tracks on the enclosed CD (and on the 7â single):
“Dear Mr Fantasy” (4:58) originally by Traffic
“Child Of The Moon” (4:55) originally by The Rolling Stones
Fantastic tracks, Paul – and great taste, in picking these Traffic & Stones classics!